


Episode One : The Viper Room

by Cloudedskiez



Series: The Unsolved Mystery of Lance McClain and Keith Kogane [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Buzzfeed Unsolved Fusion, Cryptid Hunter Keith (Voltron), Demon Lance (Voltron), M/M, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Paranormal Investigators, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21798826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cloudedskiez/pseuds/Cloudedskiez
Summary: Lance and Keith have been at this game for a while, researching haunted sights, showing up to record, investigate and gather evidence, edit, rinse and repeat.In this episode, the Goul Boys are investigating the Infamous Viper Room, a tragically historic sight indeed, and undoubtedly haunted.Lance is going to do his best to help Keith get some feasible evidence, to answer their trademark question, but Keith has a different question in mind...Are Demons Real? And is Lance McClain one of Them?Find out in this episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved!
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: The Unsolved Mystery of Lance McClain and Keith Kogane [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1570816
Comments: 10
Kudos: 157





	Episode One : The Viper Room

**Author's Note:**

> Me, starting another fic: "Peanuts and Bolts who??? A Maid in the Garden what???? I have literally never heard those names in my life."
> 
> There is a Trigger Warning for some Violence later on in the chapter, it is marked before and after if you want to avoid it.
> 
> Anyway~ Enjoy the fic :D
> 
> (Also fun fact this was supposed to be posted in October hehe...)

* * *

_ A wolf howling sound effect plays as the sinister and chilling theme music starts.  _

_ A clap of thunder sounds as the title flashes onto the screen in time with a flash of lightning. It reads:  _

_ “Buzzfeed _

_ UNSOLVED _

_ S U P E R N A T U R A L _

_ The Viper Room.” _

_ And the Episode begins. _

* * *

  
  


“This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved, we investigate The Viper Room in Los Angeles, California, as part of our ongoing investigation into the question, are ghosts real?”

Lance shakes his head while staring at the camera as Keith reads off the signature line.  _ Oh, if only you knew, Keith. _

It had been about a year since the two had started the channel, and Lance was pretty proud of what they’d managed to accomplish. Or, what  _ he _ had managed to accomplish.

Lot’s of other paranormal investigation channels relied on some special effects of some kind, but Lance was proud to say they had exactly none of that shit. They didn’t need it! They had him after all.

Right, he should probably explain his role in all of this, huh? 

So, Lance is a demon. A pretty high-level one to be exact. His name can’t be pronounced using Human tongue but it looks a little something like this:

He’s pretty friendly, despite what most people think. Just very mischievous, that’s at least  _ something _ the humans got right. In fact, his friendly nature (alongside his reputation and power) if what helps him make these investigations so much more interesting.

You see, ghosts tend to wander a lot. Time moves on a whole other level for them then it does for humans, which means they often spend days, months, even  _ years _ at a time just floating and staring off into nothing. These spirits often need to feed off of energy, and if your haunt doesn’t get much high-level activity, you’re going to be disassociating most of the time.

That’s what Lance does, he allows the spirits to feed off of his energy and in return they use it to attempt contact. 

Sometimes it doesn’t work out, like when they tried to confront the ghost of a child. Younger spirits often have a weaker power level, which means their chance of making contact is slim to none. Other times, they get a really powerful response, like when they confronted that lower-level demon in the house of one of their colleagues.

Spirits are easier to negotiate with, demons… not so much. This is why Lance is so glad he doesn’t encounter them often, as Keith is more terrified of them then he is of spirits. 

Ah, Keith. That’s something he hasn’t touched upon yet, why is he doing all of this? Does he  care about the channel? Is this all some sick prank to him?

Well… the answer is complicated. Yes, he enjoys making videos and the conspiracies that are brought on by fans. No, he doesn’t enjoy feeling spiritually drained by the end of the night because of the spirits feeding off of him. Yes, he loves seeing Keith’s pale face alight with surprised, scared, and joyful expressions whenever they gather evidence of something they can’t explain. 

No, he wouldn’t change his job to be anywhere else in the world.

Lance, as much as he’d hate to admit, has grown rather… fond of Keith. So he isn’t really inclined to stop the videos.

… 

Yeah, ok, fine. He has a huge fucking crush on Keith, alright? On top of that, demon courting rituals aren’t something a human takes too well, so he can’t rely on them to capture the heart of the adorable raven-haired boy.

“Are you excited, Lance?”

He snaps back to attention as Keith addresses him, those oddly purple colored eyes shining with excitement.

“Aw, yeah! I’m practically tingling, dude,” he answers, shifting a little on the stool they’ve perched themselves on for the interview portion of the video. He’s already sensed a couple of spirits here, at most 3. One is rather young, having only died about ten years ago. That one is attached to the mirror by the bar. It isn’t very powerful, as he mentioned before, only being able to do anything at all due to the constant buzzing energy from the people that flood the bar. The other two are more powerful, feeding off of the strings of energy that connect them to the people frequenting the bar today. 

“Same, It’s a little hard to believe the stage we’re sitting on is the place where a bunch of famous rockstars began their debut.”

Lance smiles, “Now we’re up here making our sweet, sweet ghoul music with our… mouths.”

“Yeah, dressed as the wet bandits from  _ Home Alone _ .”

Oh! That movie! Lance remembers that movie… kind of. It’s been a while, ok?

“If you actually take your hat off,” Lance prompts, to which Keith chuckles and takes his off, his long black hair sticking up in multiple places from the static. It’s fucking adorable.

“We look  _ exactly _ like the two guys from  _ Home Alone! _ ” Lance continues, chuckling.

“This was unintentional,” Keith says, looking at the camera. Lance is too busy laughing to respond, although he definitely agrees.

“Let’s do the impression of the guys getting electrocuted on the sec--”

“Oh, at the same time?”

“Yeah.”

It’s safe to say Lance is already enjoying The Viper Room. Even if the spirits aren’t.

.+⛧+.

_ “The space officially became The Viper Room in August of 1993, when Johnny Depp reportedly spent $350,000, outbidding Arnold Schwarzenegger to become Fox’s co-owner and a majority stakeholder in the company controlling the bar.” _

.+⛧+.

**(wheeze) can you imagine Schwarzenegger with that paddle?**

**“$100,000, $150,000”**

**“not this time, Depp!”**

“Put that paddle down, now!” Keith yelled, doing a wonderful Arnold Schwarzenegger impression.

Lance wheezed, clapping his hands, “There it is!” He  _ loved _ whenever Keith got passionate about something. That wild look in his eyes whenever he was talking about the History of a site, paranormal experiences, and even this; imitating obnoxious celebrities with infamous accents.

“Put it down, it’s my bar!”

“$350,000,” Lance added, imitating Johnny Depp. 

“You know.”

“I’m a pirate,” he added.

There was a pause before Keith burst out into a peal of contagious laughter, Lance eventually joining in.

_ God, I fucking love my job. _

.+⛧+.

_ “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played opening night, and The Viper Room quickly became a favorite among young celebrities, like Jared Letto, Drew Barrymore, and Leonardo DeCaprio. Tragically, it was what happened on Halloween 1993 with one such young celebrity that’s made The Viper Room infamous. _

_ In the early morning hours of October 31, 1993, actor River Phoenix went to The Viper Room, along with his girlfriend, Samantha Mathis, and his 19-year-old younger brother, Joaquin Phoenix. Security footage obtained of that night shows that the group arrived at the club at exactly 12:27 a.m. Around 1:00 a.m., River was being escorted out of the club by Mathis, and an unidentified male after quote,  _ “Acting Strangely,” _ end quote.  _

_ Recordings of a 9-1-1 call show a shaken Joaquin frantically asking for help for his brother, who was convulsing on the Sunset Strip Sidewalk, directly in front of The Viper Room.  _

_ River was transported to Cedar Sinai, but Captain Ray Ribar, a paramedic, who attended to River on the scene, said that it appeared he was suffering, quote,  _ “A classic cocaine overdose,”  _ end quote, and that, quote,  _ “he was clinically dead when we got to the club,”  _ end quote. _

_ River Phoenix was 23 years old.” _

.+⛧+.

“Jesus,” Lance said. He sensed that one of the ghosts was a bit younger than usual but he hadn’t noticed he was  _ that _ young. He was pretty powerful though, so that might have been his mistake.

“You know,” Keith started, looking at Lance with sad eyes, “It really bums me out every time I read about this. River Phoenix was--”

“He was a good actor.”

“He was also in, what you know is maybe my favorite movie of all time,  _ “The Last Crusade.” _

Well, now Lance needed to make River show up  _ for sure _ .

Keith continued, voice gloomy, “Yeah, a very talented young guy. It’s a tragedy, by all accounts, what happened to him.”

“So they were only here for a half-hour?” Lance asked, trying to get Keith in a conspiring mood again.

“Yes.” Damn. Not even a “but”.

“But it was Halloween, they were probably out before that,” He tried again, this time taking the side of the skeptics to rile Keith up a bit.

“There’s probably stuff--”  _ There we go. _

“23.”

“It’s a young age.”  _ Fuck, abort, he’s sad again. _

“Yeah, I had done nothing with my life at age 23. Nothing.”

Keith chuckled-  _ Score! _ \- “I believe it.”

“Noth--”

“How old are you now?”

...Fuck, how old  _ was _ he now? “25,” thousand.

“Nothing has changed,” Keith said, smiling smugly.

Oho, you’d be surprised. “Well, I’m, you know, I got these gloves.”

The other boy laughed, “You do got those gloves now. And you’re looking at me.”

_ I’m always looking at you. Wait, fuck, that’s creepy. _

“Yeah.”

“So, nothing has happened for you since--”

“Well, I made a friend,” Lance said, placing his hand on Keith’s shoulder and wishing he could be more.

Keith did the same, “Thanks, pal.”  _ Ouch, that stings. _

.+⛧+.

_ “Since Phoenix would have presumably spent most of his time in the VIP room, that’s where we will try to make contact.” _

.+⛧+.

Now this, _ this  _ is what Lance loves about his job. 

Sure, it can get annoying, and some spirits can be greedier than others, but this one seems… gentle, almost docile. Content. He’s not going to be any trouble.

The two of them shuffle into the VIP room, Lance going in right behind Keith, holding the camera. River was somewhere around here, Keith wasn’t wrong, he was just a little more out of it then Lance had imagined.

“All right, so this is the VIP room,” Keith introduced for the camera. “Pretty nice.”

“It  _ smells _ like a VIP room,” Lance would know, he’s snuck into a couple before.

“It be fun if there was a birthday party in here.”

“Oh, yeah. You know things got pretty crazy in here,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at Keith, who didn’t seem to notice. 

“Lots of booze probably spilled on this couch,” Keith mentioned, sitting down on one of the said couches.

Lance smirked, “Yeah, and some other stuff.”

Keith gave him a sour look, “Okay.” Yikes, that got shut down fast. 

“It goes without saying,” Keith continued, “it was a tragedy what happened to River Phoenix,  _ but _ it is our job to try and communicate with people that have passed on. You seem like a cool guy.” Oh ok, ghost talk now, we’re just going to ignore Lance, fine. 

While Keith tried to get River to talk to him- which wasn’t going to happen to him anyway, considering he was not currently strong enough to speak through the barrier that separated the living from the deceased- Lance got to work finding and feeding the spirit of the boy. He entered the Astral Plane, removing his spirit from his body. His body would be left to stare blankly at Keith but that was fine since he didn’t have to do anything vocal right now anyway.

He found River easily enough, right next to Keith, listening intently and trying desperately to answer the questions. The sight broke Lance’s undead heart a bit, but he persisted and cleared his throat.

_ River Phoenix.  _

The boy was startled and looked up at Lance from his messy transparent bangs.  _ Who are you? _

Keith kept his questions going, “What was it like being in movies, River?”

River’s attention snapped back to Keith.  _ Incredible! Amazing! I wish I could have done so much more, I  _ know _ I could have done so much more! _

_ Kid. _

River looked up, a bit crazed.

_ He’s never going to be able to hear you. Hell, the only reason you’re here is that you feel tied to this place. You’re trapped, either by yourself, your fans, or these ghost hunters who keep bringing you back. _

River looked at Keith’s pale face, sighing.

_ Fans like to do “ghost sessions” here. Every time I try and leave they drag me back, eventually I decided to stay. _

Lance hummed,  _ Alright, River. I’ll cut you a deal. _

River looked at him, standing. Lance continued,  _ I’ll send you straight to the afterlife,  _ if _ you use my energy to show this guy here, Keith, evidence of your existence. _

_ How?  _ River asked,  _ I mean, I know you’re some kind of supernatural thing but you saw me just now, you know I can’t do shit like this. How the hell am I supposed to “use your energy” to speak to him? _

_ Simple,  _ Lance answered,  _ I’ll show you. Just open yourself and be ready to take, imagine it like a vacuum, or a charger, I will provide the reservoir, you will use it. Clear? _

River swallowed and nodded,  _ Crystal. _

Lance winked and exited the Astral Plane, the image of River dissipating as he did so, but the faint outline of his spirit energy remained.

He decided to break the silence that had settled, addressing Keith, “We’ve never gotten like a word from anyone. Why are you expecting-- it’s like your sitting down with “Rolling Stone” and writing a piece on him, like celebs--”

Keith interrupted, slightly annoyed, “What’s a non-journally question, then, like a--”

“How do you balance life, work, and family?” Lance said, breaking down into laughter by the end of the question. 

The raven-haired boy rolled his eyes and continued to ask questions, “Hey, River, what’s your favorite band? What kind of music did you listen to when you came here?”

_ Rock and Roll, I’ll bet. _

Keith snorted with laughter, and Lance realized he said that out loud. “Oh! Sorry, yeah, you answer.”

Once he gained his composure, Keith spoke again, “Look, River, maybe it’s hard for you to communicate, so we’re going to use something that may help you communicate.”

_ Showtime.  _

As Keith pulled the Spirit Box™ out of his pocket, Lance went to the Astral Plane again. This time, he was greeted with two spirits.

_ Oh, so River really  _ did _ see something else here… _

Lance smirked.  _ Oh, I’m something alright. Nice to meet you, Anthony,  _ he said, holding out his hand to shake.

Anthony crossed his arms, Lance chuckled, a smirk growing,  _ Smart man.  _

_ What do you want with this place? What do you want with River? _

_ River knows what I told him, that would be for him to decide. I don’t see how it’s any of your business. _

Anthony scowled, and Lance felt his connection with his body shiver.  _ Okay, Anthony, River, I’ll introduce myself. You can call me Lance, as most humans do. The boy I am with here is Keith Kogane. We are “ghost hunters” here to investigate the question of spirits’ existence.  _

_ You’re already here, why can’t your investigation be over.  _ Anthony asked, River nodding behind him. It was obvious who was in charge here. Typically, at least.

_ Because I, unlike Keith over here,  _ he said, nodding to Keith who was fishing around in his pocket for the Spirit Box,  _ am the only one who can see you. Keith does not have the same abilities that I do. He’s stuck in the physical realm, while I can explore this one. _

_ What. Are. You. _ Anthony demanded.

_ A demon,  _ Lance answered, his eyes flashing as he transformed to show his true form. He grew in height, due to the hooved goat legs covered in shaggy brown hair that replaced his human ones, his nails extended into long black claws, teeth growing longer as well so his incisors were sharper. Twisted horns appeared on the side of his head where long rabbit-like ears flopped down to his shoulders. A couple more bumps of horns sprouted from his skull, stopping at the tip of his spine. A long lions tail grew between his legs, waving languidly. His neck grew hairy until a scruff of deer fur was present to cover his now bare chest. His eyes split into four and glowed an eerie blue, and the same color was present in markings slashed across his forearms, face, neck, back, and chest. He licked a black forked tongue across his lips, winking two of his eyes and smirking.

_ Well, this is terrifying!  _ River exclaimed, now fully hiding behind Anthony who also looked like he would rather be elsewhere before his expression hardened.

_ You. _

Lance raised an eyebrow, smirk still in place.  _ Yes? _

_ It was one of you who cursed me here. _

Lance’s eyes blinked in surprise.  _ One of us, huh. Interesting. River here told me his fans kept him here, and, if you must know, I promised I'd send him right along if he agreed to speak with Keith.  _

River nodded frantically,  _ That’s still true! But Tony told me something else is keeping him here, he just doesn’t know what. _

He looked at Anthony,  _ You think it could be a demon? _

Anthony shook his head,  _ I don’t think so, I  _ know _ so.  _

Lance squinted before saying,  _ We will be talking about this later when we go “visit” you downstairs. River, my offer still stands, the Spirit Box will help you use my energy to communicate, are you ready? _

River nodded, looking excited. Lance’s tail swayed as he smiled.

_ Great, let’s get on with it, shall we? _ With that, he opened his power to a circuit directed to River. Then, he returned to his body. Keith was still fiddling with the Spirit Box and mumbled: “You’re gonna love it.”

_ Oh, Keith. Babe, you have  _ no  _ idea. _

As the static of the Spirit Box filled the silent room, Lance felt the connection strengthen suddenly, and River started pulling in his energy.

“All right. Let’s try this again. My name is Keith.”

“Lance.” Keith set the box on the seat between them.

“Can you say our names back to us, whoever is in this VIP room with us, if you would like to communicate?”

The static continued and Lance felt his energy drain a bit. Then, he reached out to Anthony as well, noticing he hadn’t left the room. “We’re nice guys,” he said, speaking to Anthony, “very approachable.”

He felt a shiver as Anthony took to the link and used his energy as well. There was silence before Keith spoke up again, “Once again--”

_ “HELP ME.”  _ The Spirit Box spoke.  _ Anthony. _

_ “PLEASE HELP.”  _ It said again. Then Anthony broke the connection and a burst of static got through as he left the room. 

Lance split from his body and entered the Astral Plane again.  _ Is Anthony okay?  _ he asked, referring to the “help me” they heard.

River nodded, looking excited.  _ Yeah, he was just showing me how to use the static box thing. _

_ Spirit Box. _

_ Right. _

Lance nodded and went back to his body as Keith spoke up. “That really sounded like hi, how you doing?”

_ Are you fucking--  _ “Did it  _ really _ sound like hi, how you doing?”

Keith smiled, “It did to me.”

_ “HI BOYS.” _

Lance paused, “Hi?”  _ Geez, hold out on the terrifying, River. _

There was another unintelligible burst of static before River severed the connection as well. Lance understood, it can take a lot out of typically inactive spirits to suddenly interact with physical objects, no matter if they had a power source or not. 

“I think that was Japanese,” Keith commented.

Lance stared at him for a bit, incredulous, “River’s was not a Japanese--”

“I don’t think he was--”

“Person.” 

“No, I don’t think so.”

Lance facepalmed.

.+⛧+.

_ “Another active area of The Viper Room is the bar itself. Tommy Black, the general manager who’s worked at The Viper Room for the past 17 years, told “Ghost Adventures” that when patrons are standing at a certain point at the bar, quote,  _ “They’ll either faint, pass out, or their knees will buckle,”  _ end quote. Quote,  _ “I’ve seen people drop in the same spot 16, 17 times,”  _ end quote. _

_ He added, quote,  _ “I’ve seen a glass fly from the bar onto a mat,”  _ end quote.” _

.+⛧+.

“Right now we’re at the bar,” Keith said, “This is where Tommy, the current manager claims he sees a lot of people buckle over in this exact spot right here.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve seen other ghost hunters come here, and say that it’s been very cold and that they see flashes of things.”

Well, now he knows what the lesser spirit he felt earlier is.

A small Yōkai dwells in the mirror portal behind the shelving of the bar. Lance doesn’t need to visit the Astral Plane to see it, his regular spirit vision is enough. It’s an ugly little thing, Gyūkan probably. A tricky little cow-like spirit that causes its victims to faint or feel lightheaded when they come into contact with food or drinks. The little bastard must be having a field day with all the energy it picks up from its frequent bar victims. Lance glares at it, daring it to try something on them. Wisely, it obeys. Yōkai were never really powerful in terms of the 9 circles of hell, they were more of a pesky fly in comparison, or like annoying children that you weren’t allowed to hurt.

Not that you’re allowed to hurt children anyway.

Moving on…

“Are you feeling any kind of particular energy right now over here?” Keith asks.

“I’m feeling ready for Friday night, if you know what I’m talking about,” Lance says, leaning against one of the bar stools. “No, I’m not. Spiritually, no,” he clarifies, despite the reality being the very opposite.

“Are you?” he asks, pointing the night-vision camera at Keith. 

Keith hesitates for a moment before sighing, “No.”

Lance chuckles under his breath, “You know what? Let’s just get a shot here.”

“What? No-”

“Yeah, take one for the road!”

“Lance you’re  _ driving-” _

“Relax, Keithers. I’ve got a strong tolerance!” he says, winking at Keith.

Keith rolls his eyes and decides to get the video back on track, “We invite anything in here to communicate with us, whether it be touching us as you’ve done in the past, you could say something to us…”

Lance glares at the Gyūkan, sending the silent message of  _ Don’t you fucking dare. _

The Gyūkan shrinks into itself and slinks away to hide behind a bottle of whiskey.

“...you could move something on this bar,” Keith continues, oblivious to Lance’s silent interaction. “You could make a noise. In fact, I've heard that you’ve pushed glasses!” 

Then, his eyes light up as he reaches for one of the nearby beer glasses and places it upside-down on the bar counter, “You could move this glass. I’ve heard you’ve moved glasses off this bar in the past. Can you do that?”

“That’s kind of a common ghost story at bars, isn’t it?  _ Oooh, the glass fell off! Must be a ghost!  _ I think that’s just bar stuff, ya know?” Lance says, leaning against the counter. “Glasses are falling in bars all the time. That’s like someone saying a ghost made it smell like stale beer in here.”

“A ghost vomited in the urinal again,” Keith quips with a smirk.

They both stand there in silence for a while before Lance pipes up, “Maybe you’ve forgotten how. I’ll show you.”

“Are you just gonna… smash the glass?” Keith asks as Lance reaches over. He gently shoves the glass a little so it slides a short distance across the counter. 

“Woah!” Keith laughs, “If that happened on its own--” 

“Oh, you’d shit your tight little pants!” Lance laughed, causing Keith to punch him in the arm.

“We are going to leave this glass here for you, though,” Keith continued, speaking to the ghosts again.

“Break it, shatter it, chuck it into the mirror.”

“No, don’t do that I don’t want to get sued.”

“Okay, well, maybe just slide it around.”

Keith looked around, “Is there any way I can mark where this is…?” He trailed off as he spotted a coaster next to the stack of glasses. He took a couple from the pile and started placing them in a border around the glass.

“Ooh, yeah perfect!” Lance said, adding some straws to the mix.

“These are pretty light though, what if they get blown around?”

“Hmm… I have an idea.”

_ 15 minutes later… _

The setup they finished with was a coaster against the front and back of the glass with two straws at the sides. Keith slapped the counter with his fist while Lance tapped the end of his flashlight against it to see if it would be easily moved.

“Okay, that’s pretty stable.”

Lance screamed at their arrangement. 

“Yep, just a normal thing we’re doing at 6:00 a.m., slapping a bar counter, balancing coasters on a glass… that’s probably not going to move.”

Lance waved his hand quickly through the air, starting up a draft. The straws moved a little bit, “Oh! See, that did it.”

“Well, that was wind,” Keith replied, crossing his arms. 

“Well, that is good to know, though, just in case some windy ghosts come by.”

Keith stared at the glass for a bit before speaking again, “Let’s move on.”

“Yup, okay.”

.+⛧+.

_ “Even after years of experiencing these strange occurrences, Black still works in the infamous club, but Black isn’t the only Viper room employee who’s experienced something they can’t explain. _

_ Maci Jane, The Viper Room’s former manager, told “Ghost Adventures” that she’s received the same phone call in the clubs office multiple times. The phone would ring, Maci Jane would answer, and the person on the other end would say,  _ “Hi, it’s me,” _ in a man's voice. Maci Jane reports that there is static after the person speaks, and then, the line goes dead.” _

.+⛧+.

“Look, it could be a prank phone call. I’ll say it for you,” Keith says after he finishes reading the segment.

“Hilarious.”

“Yeah.”

“Get this,” Lance says, imitating a kid doing a prank call. He holds his hand in the shape of a phone up to his ear, pauses, and then says, “Hi, it’s me.” Then he pretends to hang up.

The two of them burst into giggles and Lance’s cold dead heart feels a little warmer.

.+⛧+.

_ “It is believed by some that these phone calls are being made by none other than the former co-owner of The Viper Room himself, Anthony Fox, a man who’s been missing since December 19, 2001. Days before Fox was set to testify against Johnny Depp and four others for allegedly defrauding him of profits from the club, Anthony Fox disappeared. On January 6, 2002, Fox’s truck was found in Santa Clara, California, but no trace of Fox was found.” _

.+⛧+.

**let’s hit that with a**

**classic “no comment”**

**(wheeze)**

**because, uh, I like my life right**

**now. don’t want to get sued.**

“Is that a coincidence?” Keith asked. “Probably, you know, that’s what we can say.”

The two stared at each other in silence for a bit before Lance spoke up in a slightly panicked voice.

_ “Okay.” _

.+⛧+.

_ “But people speculate that Anthony Fox isn’t missing at all, but that he is, in fact, buried on The Viper Room premises, and according to Maci Jane, someone who says she cannot name, personally confirmed that a body is buried behind The Downstairs Lounge, in a small room with a dirt floor. _

_ Tommy Black, the longtime manager, refuses to even enter that room. _

.+⛧+.

“Okay, so this is the downstairs bar,” Keith said, walking into the room before Lance, “and as you can see, it definitely does have a little bit more of a sinister vibe, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

Oh hell yeah it does. Tony’s body is buried here, and Tony is  _ not _ happy about it. After all, unless bodies get a proper burial, they aren’t able to be set free. This means that technically Lance can release River from The Viper Room, but for Anthony, he might have to do something greater.

“It’s pretty luxurious,” Lance decides to comment, it seems like one of the safer options. The hairs on the back of his neck are already beginning to perk up, even though Keith seems thoroughly unaffected by the chill that suddenly swept through the room. 

_ Looks like we have an audience this time. _ He thinks, feeling Anthony’s presence beside him. When he looks he can see an outline of Anthony’s apparition using his spirit vision, but otherwise, he won’t be able to become any more corporeal.

“Yeah, feels like some  _ nasty  _ stuff went on down here,” he says with a smirk, watching as Anthony’s face scrunches up in disgust.

“That aside,” Keith says, glossing over the comment, “pretty cool lounge we’ve got down here.” 

“Yeah,” Lance agrees as the two of them move over to the couches.

“Ah!” Keith moans as he sits down on the plush sofas. Lance feels all the blood rush south at the exclamation. 

“Well, don’t make that noise,” he scolds, sitting next to Keith.

Keith cackles as Lance shakes his head, “Never again.”

As soon as they calm down, Keith starts the “interview”. “If there’s anybody down here with us, specifically Anthony Fox, we would love to know what happened to you,”

Lance enters the Astral Plane once again, letting Keith take control of the question asking. Anthony is there sitting next to him on the couch, looking a bit distraught.

_ Why do you bother hiding your face like that, it makes you seem too human. _

Lance chuckles,  _ Well, in my experience, humans don’t take too well to my true form. I thought this might be a more appropriate approach to take. Plus, as mentioned before, Keith doesn’t know about all of this, humans, in general, have trouble with things they don’t understand. I assure you, I don’t intend to keep my true identity a secret for much longer, but I am not ready- nor is he- to reveal this world to him just yet. _

Anthony squinted suspiciously as Keith continued speaking, “So we’re going to give you some time right now to communicate with us. You can say something, you could move something in the bar, you could touch us.”

_ So he doesn’t know anything about… this world? _

He shakes his head,  _ Not a clue. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no fool, but he definitely doesn’t believe in everything that is a part of this world. Only a small portion. _

“One minute, right now, please tell us what happened to you.”

Anthony scratches his beard,  _ You can’t help me like you’re going to help River escape from here, can you? _

_ No,  _ he says resolutely,  _ I cannot. _

The other man sits in silence for a while before speaking up again, looking at the floor.

_ I want to speak to him. _

Lance raised an eyebrow,  _ Who, Keith? _

_ Yes, I want to tell him what happened to me,  _ Anthony replied, looking determined.

_ Alright, if you’re sure. Just make sure you speak clearly when you manipulate the Spirit Box and try not to send any mixed messages, Keith is quite dense, _ he finished with a chuckle.

_ Okay, I’ll do my best. _

_ I wish you luck, _ Lance says, and returns to his body.

He hears wheezing next to him and suddenly Keith’s flashlight shines into his eyes.

“He’s just fucking asleep!” Keith laughs.

_ Shit, I was out for too long.  _ “I’m not asleep, I was just--”

“I was scanning the bar, looking for ghosts, and I pan over to you, and you’re just passed out.”

Lance chuckles at that, scolding himself internally for being so careless. 

“Like I said,” Keith continues, “there has been a lot of… there were mobsters down here, this was once a grocery store. Who knew, who knows what happened down here? Anything could have happened,” he says, reaching into his bag to pull out the Spirit Box, “and I’m gonna use something right now that could maybe shed some light on that.”

“Here we go!” The switch is flipped and the ever-changing static of the Spirit Box flickers to life.

“All right!” The static fills the silent room. “Now once again, my name is Keith.”

“I’m Lance!” said boy yells out.

Keith chuckles a little before shaking himself to remain on task, “And we’re reaching out to the spirit of Anthony Fox. If you are, in fact, unfortunately, dead, Mr. Fox, can you please tell us what happened to you?”

The static gets louder as Lance lends his energy to Anthony.

“What were you going to say on trial that next day?”

The statics volume increases before a voice comes through the Spirit Box.

_ “HELP.” _

Keith looks at Lance with wide eyes. 

“Oh, Keith didn’t like that one bit,” Lance said, hoping that was a subtle way of telling Anthony to  _ tone it the fuck down, please. _

“No, I didn’t. What the fuck was that?”

Lance feels Anthony retreating for a bit, which disrupts the static before he comes back.

“If that’s you, Anthony, could you say that again?” Keith asks. “What did you want to say on trial that next day?”

“It sounded like he said, “Help,” Lance says, feeling a little drained already.

“Help,” Keith repeats under his breath. He seems to consider it for a bit before speaking again, “Once again, whoever just spoke, could you speak to us again?”

The static persisted and Lance fiddled with his fingers.  _ Help. Surely he doesn’t intend to have Keith dig him up from that room… right? _

Keith stood up suddenly, drawing Lance out of his thoughts. “Welp, let’s look in that hole. Do you not want us to look in there?”

“Ghoul Boys see a hole, they’re gonna look in it,” Lance adds. “That’s a Ghoul Boy promise.”

“That’s true.”

The two of them move over to the small room. It couldn’t be more than a couple of square feet, and, like the witnesses proclaimed, the floor was entirely made up of dirt. 

It was… unsettling to say the least. 

And Lance had a  _ very _ bad feeling about it.

“Rise and Shine, baby,” Keith said, stepping towards the threshold.

“Well, that’s the closet.”

Keith paused for a bit, one foot on the doorframe, “Is it?”

Lance shrugged, “Yes, basically.”

“We’ll see about that…” Keith mutters as he steps into the “closet”.

“Keith… what are you doing?” Lance asks, trying desperately to keep the panic from his voice.

_ “HEY.” _ The Spirit Box speaks, causing the two boys to freeze.

“...Yes?” Keith answers after a beat. After no response, he continues crawling through. “It is kind of creepy in here, actually,” he comments, sitting down on a low-hanging wood beam.

“Now I’m in your hole,” he says, causing Lance to have an aneurysm.

_ Shut the fuck up, brain, you dirty rat bastard. Keith would never say that in… that context. _

“I’m reaching out to Anthony Fox. Are you buried here?”

Lance leans against the doorway and enters the Astral Plane again. He spots Anthony standing next to him, partially enveloped in a wooden beam. He’s glowing brighter than usual, a common symptom whenever spirits get close to their bodies. 

_ Clearly,  _ he mutters, and the Spirit Box picks it up.

_ Be careful, Anthony,  _ Lance says, directing his energy away from the Spirit Box,  _ your form is a lot more powerful when you’re near your old body. You have to watch what you say, the Spirit Box responds to readings very easily. _

“What was that?” Keith asks.

Anthony looks troubled for a bit before speaking again.  _ Okay, could you please help me? _

This time, the Spirit Box only picks up a couple of words.  _ Better _ , Lance comments.  _ Try and get him on your side so you two are on the same page of what you want to communicate. _

He nods, ponders for a bit before saying,  _ Please help. _ His speech is picked up completely by the Spirit Box.  _ Please help me, _ he says again, and again the box translates.

Keith swallows and continues questioning, “What happened in here? Why do people not like coming over here?”

_ Now you guys are on the same page,  _ Lance says,  _ tell him what happened. Remember to speak clearly, make sure your thoughts and your voice don’t get muddled, that will mess up the message. _

Anthony nods and Lance returns to his body, answering the question to give him more time, “Is it because it’s a weird basement crawl space?”

“I don’t know,” Keith comments. He pauses before looking directly at Lance, “Turn off the light, and shut the door.”

_ Fucking hell, Keith. Why must you do the things you do? _ _  
  
_

Lance, always a weakling to Keiths demands, does exactly that and waits outside anxiously for Keith’s return. He sets into the Astral Plane in order to make sure Keith is safe.

And… ya know… to eavesdrop. He’s still a demon, after all.

“Going to give you one more chance to talk to me on Spirit Box, this may help you speak. Here we go,” Keith turns the spirit box back on and Lance sends his energy to Anthony, feeling the bond between them strengthen immediately. 

“Once again, my name is Keith. Can you say Keith back?”

_ Keith, _ Anthony tries, but it just comes out unintelligible.

“Anybody… buried in here that’s not supposed to be in here?” he says, shifting a little.

… Seriously, Keith?

Anthony snorts a little, and unfortunately, that sound comes through the Spirit Box.

“What?” Keith asks, looking down at the box. 

The spirit recovers and says his name,  _ Anthony.  _ It comes out clear from the Spirit Box.

Keith doesn’t pick up on it, the adorably dense motherfucker that he is, and keep talking, “I’m talking to Anthony Fox, what happened to you?”

Anthony considers this for a while, but before he’s about to speak, Keith turns off the Spirit Box. 

_ Oh my god… _

_ Are you kidding me?!  _ Anthony cries, slapping his hand on his forehead.

Lance pats him on the back,  _ Sorry, buddy. We’re going to be doing individual investigations later if that helps? You’ll get another shot then. _

Anthony sighs, long and hard, and nods.  _ You can go, I’m going to try and get my story straight for when you come back. _

He nods,  _ Okay, I’ll let you know when it’s time. _

_ Thank you,  _ Anthony says before Lance returns to his body in time to open the door for Keith.

“Woo! Don’t try that at home, folks, it’s gross,” Keith says, ducking under the doorframe. There are cobwebs stuck in his mullet and Lance has the urge to brush them out gently with his fingers.

Keith turns to Lance, standing next to him, “I think this is as good a time as any to jump into individual investigations.”

“Yeah,” Lance agrees, unable to do anything else while the raven-haired boy is that close. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts, “Yes, I’d like to explore this space on my lonesome.”

“I would, too,” Keith responds. “More specifically, any space but that one, ‘cause it was gross.”

Lance scrunches his nose up at the reminder, “It smells like shit.”

The two of them turn off the cameras and head back upstairs, sitting down at the bar and checking their equipment. There’s no sign of the Yōkai anymore, which is probably bad, but Lance has other, more important things to deal with.

Keith lets out a deep sigh and looks up at Lance, flicking his fringe out of his eyes. “You want to go first?”

“Sure,” he responds, standing up and stretching before grabbing the night-vision camera. He knows he’s not going to capture any real evidence, the fans are just here for his odd goofball-like shenanigans and they know that he never takes these investigations seriously. This means Lance could probably do a summoning chant and nobody would bat an eyelash.

It’s kinda funny, how oblivious humans can be sometimes. 

He turns the camera towards him and presses the recording button, “Alright, I’m ready to enter the Nightmare Zone once again.”

“You gonna… okay, that’s,” Keith hesitates, standing up and following Lance a bit. “I was gonna say what you could look for, and all that stuff but.”

“I’m looking for ghosts,” Lance answers simply, an innocent smile on his face. He then descends into the basement once more. 

Keith stares at his retreating form for a while before saying, “All right,” and heading back to sit at the counter.

Lance holds his flashlight in his right hand and the camera in his left, “Descending into the basement.” His knuckles accidentally brush against the unexpectedly plush walls. “Ooh, it’s velvety,” he comments, pausing in his descent. He runs his hand over the wall again, “It’s very velvety.” 

Suddenly, he hears Keith’s voice speak up from upstairs.

_ “So Lance is down there, likely not taking this investigation very seriously, very on-brand.” _

He chuckles to himself. See? Nothing too spirit-y is expected of him right now.

_ Hold on… if I can hear Keith, can he hear me? _ Lance decides to test this out.

By screaming.

“Ah, ah! Ah!” He waits for a bit and doesn’t hear anything back. 

“No echoes whatsoever,” he comments, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs. He strides into the middle of the room, surrounded by couches and utter darkness.

“Anyway,”  _ May as well play it up for the cameras. I’ve got an hour to collect footage, that should be enough time to alert Anthony. _ “The name’s Lance. I’m a ghost hunter, and, I’m here  _ alone _ right now, giving you the  _ perfect _ opportunity to really give me a spook, the spook of a lifetime!”

He chuckles a little at the pun, “This is a once in a  _ deathtime  _ opportunity!”

_ “But I will say, look at this,”  _ Keith says from upstairs. Lance pauses to listen in.

_ “The straws moved a little bit.”  _ Oh they  _ did,  _ did they? Lance is going to kill that little mischievous bastard of a Yōkai…

_ “Now, that may be from just the general rustle and bustle of a set,”  _ Aww… Keith is thinking of him. Er, at least, his skepticism, 

_ “But you know, they were like this,” _ there’s a very faint scratching against the counter that Lance’s demon ears pick up, thank hell for his sensitive hearing,  _ “if you will recall, and I feel like we painstakingly made that clear. They’ve moved, just saying,”  _ he finishes smugly. Lance smirks,  _ that’s my Keith. _

_ No, not your Keith, he’s his own person. _

_ Damnit, I know that, let me dream, okay? _

He decides to call out again, “Any, just mobsters in gen, any general mobsters here?” He flips the camera over to scan the room, “Mobsters love an empty basement, ooh, yeah, this one’s deep, this is one story under a ground, baby.”

Lance doesn’t even know what he’s saying at this point… but that doesn’t really matter. As long as it gets Anthony’s attention he can be as obnoxious as possible.

He’s had a lot of littermates, he knows how to be annoying.

“But this basement, ooh, it’s a party basement, isn’t it?” He starts stomping on the floor, “I’m a little party boy!” he hollers, “If you’re looking for a party boy, here I am!”

He flashes finger guns at an empty couch, “Let’s party, baby~ Let’s party, let’s dance!”

Silence envelops the room before Lance burst out into laughter. When he finally calms down, he looks at the camera, “Heh, I don’t know what to say on these things anymore, ‘cause it’s all the same.”

Making his way back over to the couch, he mutters, “Quiet rooms full of nothing.”

He sits in silence for a while, and eventually enters the Astral Plane to find Anthony. 

_ Anthony? Mr. Fox, are you over here?  _ He asks as he moves across the floor. Sure enough, Anthony is standing right where they left him. He seems to startle out of his trance and turns to look at Lance.

_ Is it time already? _ He asks, to which Lance nods in response.

_ Keith’s going to be down here soon. I don’t think he’s going to go back over to the closet, though. _

_ Okay… thank you. _

Lance smirks and winks at Anthony,  _ Not a problem, man. Sorry, I’m not able to do more. _

Anthony shakes his head,  _ That’s alright, I shouldn’t have expected so much from you anyway.  _

He nods and returns to his body, standing up and stretching. “Okay, I’m gonna go now. Bye, ghosts. I love you.” He pauses for a bit to wait for a response, then shrugs and continues up the stairs. 

“It’s me,” he announces when he reaches Keith. 

The other boy chuckles and walks closer, “Did you fall asleep down there?”

“No, I actually didn’t,” he  _ thinks _ . Hopefully, he didn’t spend too much time in the Astral Plane. “I was dancing,” he adds.

“You were dancing?” Keith repeats, smiling softly with a raised eyebrow.

“Well,” Lance chuckles, “I thought the mobsters might’ve liked a party boy, so I tried to give them a party boy and they didn’t want the party boy, but I think it’s worth maybe trying to give them another party boy.”

Keith’s eyebrow climbs higher, “What  _ kind _ of party boy? Do we have to edit out your dancing?”

Lance pauses for a moment before laughing loudly, “Noooo, no no no, not like that. I was a very respectful party boy, I kept all my clothes on and didn’t touch the ghosts in inappropriate places, no sir.”

The raven-haired boy gagged and shoved Lance, “Alright, that’s enough, shut up.”

He continued cackling and Keith sighed, “I’m going to have to cleanse the basement now, aren’t I?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, still laughing, “You’ll take your little spirit broom out and sweep, sweep, sweep away the  _ nasty  _ things I did to that couch.”

“God, you are such a demon sometimes, I swear,”

_ Oho, baby, you have  _ no  _ idea~ _

“Hey, Keith!” he calls, causing Keith to turn around skeptically, “Who you gonna call?”

Keith smiles wide, “Keith Kogane!” He turns around and enters the basement while singing the  _ Ghostbusters  _ theme. “Oh, well, I gotta do it a little offbeat, because it’s copyright.”

Lance shakes his head fondly and goes over to sit at the bar, he stares at the camera for a moment before smirking wickedly. “Well, I hope he finds a ghost.” Then he saps out all the power of the camera, causing it to turn off. He’ll have to add some illusion footage later on, but for now, without a camera on him, he can go off to save River.

He splits from his body and enters the Astral Plane, hoping that Anthony is communicating with Keith. He heads back upstairs into the VIP room and looks around. 

_ River? You in here?  _ He doesn’t sense anything, so he goes back downstairs. Then, he feels a tug on the bond he and River made earlier. Quickly, he rushes down to the basement, shedding his human disguise. 

There he spots River next to Keith in the center of the room looking melancholy. Keith is going through his interview process as per usual and River is trying desperately to answer the questions. 

_ River. _ The boy jumps and whirls around. Lance stares him down as he approaches.  _ It’s time to go, River. I’m going to set your spirit free, are you ready? _

River looks back and forth between him and Keith.  _ Can I at least say one more thing to him? He’s a big fan, It’s been a while…  _

Lance sighs and then nods, lending more energy to River.

“River,” Keith says, “I don’t know if you ever spent any time down here in this part of the bar, but you, honestly, were one of my favorite actors.”

River glows brightly at the compliment. 

Keith swallows, “I think you were really talented, and it’s a shame you’re gone now.”

_ “Thank You,”  _ River says, clear as day, through the Spirit Box. After he finishes speaking, leaving Keith in a shocked mess, he turns to Lance and grabs his hand.

_ Okay, I’m ready to go now. _

Lance smiles and starts chanting. 

.+⛧+.

After he returns to his body, he checks the time. “Oh, whoops.  _ Keith!” _ he calls out, seeing that he’s gone over the time limit.

_ “Oh, shit.” _ He hears from downstairs, and smiles. _ “Ah, fuck.” _

“Your time’s up!” he calls again.

He hears Keith’s footsteps faintly coming up the stairs,  _ “I actually thought you were a voice, screaming through the Spirit Box at first.” _

“I mean… I was a voice screaming through something,” he answers, waiting at the top of the stairs.

“All right,” Keith says when he reaches Lance, “let’s get out of here.”

“How’d it go down there?” Lance asks.

“Can’t really tell.”

“Ah, that’s rough.”

“Yeah, well, you know how it is.”

Lance nods, “Yeah, tripped your audio a little bit maybe--” he cuts off when he hears a creaking sound from downstairs. Suddenly, a cold chill douses over him, a horrible feeling settled in his gut. His markings, invisible to Keith, start burning against his face at the increase of spiritual presence that just spiked.

_ Something _ just got here.

_ Something _ is  _ not happy. _

And Lance knows what it is.

“Is there somebody opening something down there, up here?” Keith asks while Lance shines the light on his face.

The two boys look at each other for a while, Lance schooling his features into what he  _ hopes _ is a neutral expression to hide away his fear.

“Wow. Now, we have a party!” Keith says excitedly.

_ Bloody hell, Keith. You’re going to get yourself killed! _

With a smile, Keith turns towards the stairs, “Let’s go check it out! I just wanna see...”

Lance grabs a hold of his arm quickly, hoping to talk some sense into the other man, “What are you talking- there’s nothing going on.”

“Did you not hear that?” Keith asks, tilting his head in an adorably confused manor.

“No,” he lies, letting Keith’s arm go as they continue down the stairs.

“I swear I heard a door creak or squeak from down here…” Keith says

Lance sighs internally, “How many times are we gonna go up and down these steps?”

Keith shrugs, swinging around his flashlight, “I don’t know.”

When they get to the bottom of the steps, Lance feels his markings flare-up. The temperature has definitely dropped, and he can feel a physical presence, they aren’t alone here anymore.

Well, they never were, but now they aren’t for  _ sure _ .

“You heard that, though, right?” Keith calls, inspecting the couch area while Lance waits by the stairs.

“A door must have opened down here, I heard it…” he continues, mumbling.

Lance feels a flash of cold pain streak across his back, and panics, “Nope! I didn’t hear anything! Just a big ‘ol empty room, haha, let’s go.” He makes to grab for Keith’s arm but the boy turns around and dodges it.

“Did someone open a door down here?”

_ Lance… you need to leave… NOW!  _ He hears from the Astral Plane. Anthony is directly using his power to reach out, and he gets the message.

“It doesn’t look like it…” Keith mumbles, almost in disappointment.

_ Well I know for sure he’d be less disappointed if he knew what was down here, but now’s not the time! _

“Told ya so, let’s go, man. I’m kinda getting hungry.”

Keith sweeps the room with his flashlight once more before turning off his camera and sighing, “Yeah, alright. I swear I heard something though…”

“Probably just your mind playing tricks on you.”

“Heh, you’d think that, wouldn’t you.”

“Yep,” Lance responds, popping the p. “Now let’s go, ghost boy. I call shotgun.”

“Lance… you’re driving.”

“Am I?” Lance feigns disbelief, “Oh, well, in that case, I better go to the washroom before we head out.”

“Good idea,” Keith nods, “I’ll wait for you in the car.”

“Sounds good!” Lance says, flashing a thumbs up while Keith exits. Then, he rushes down to the basement.

**_\- T R I G G E R W A R N I N G -_ **

Shedding his disguise, his spirit vision increases and he makes his way down the stairs, his hooves clomping loudly as he does.

_ “Alright, motherfucker, where are ya.” _

A hiss sounds from the dirt closet, and Lance turns his eyes towards it.

_ “Gotcha~” _

Suddenly, a scream echoes out and a dark shape dashes from the closet and flies towards Lance, knocking him back. It’s a low-level demon, able to do the bare minimum in terms of paranormal interference, but still leagues above any spirits. 

And, unfortunately, Lance recognized it.

_ “Prorok,”  _ he hissed, flexing his claws. Demons are very territorial, Lance being no exception, so Prorok has probably placed some sort of claim or mark upon this club, making it so that no other low-level demons would try and fight for it. By the looks of it, Prorok is probably the one keeping Anthony here as well, because the hierarchy places  _ any  _ level demon (even if they are mindless spawn) above spirits, no matter how powerful they are. Lance thinks it’s unfair, but then again, he can’t do much to change it.

_ Hmm, maybe if I manage to despawn him, Anthony could escape. _

He can see Prorok gearing up for another attack in the corner, and he braces himself, marks glowing.

_ Then I could place my  _ own _ claim on this place, that should keep these fuckers out for good. _

Suddenly, Prorok hissed and charged. It was much slower than Lance was, so he dodged easily, but Prorok couldn’t be defeated by avoiding his attacks, so he makes his moves, swiping his claws and scraping into the dark flesh of his opponent.

Prorok  _ shrieks _ and Lance winces, hoping for some miracle that Keith didn’t hear it and decided to investigate.

Deciding not to waste any more time, Lance charges forward and grabs Prorok's head, snapping the neck. Then with a sickening tear, he rips the spine from the body and crushes it under his hooves. He uses a sharper point of the broken spine to cut into his fingertip and draws a quick symbol on the inside of the closet to keep the other demons out. 

He turned around, exiting the closet. With a snap of his fingers, a hot blue flame ignites in his palm. He uses it to set fire to Prorok’s remains, destroying the evidence. Then, he turns and addresses the empty room.

**_\- T R I G G E R W A R N I N G C L E A R E D -_ **

_ “It is finished, Anthony. You are safe to come out now.” _

Slowly, Anthony enters through the staircase. His eyes are blown wide with fear, and he hesitates before stepping closer.

_ He was so powerful, _ Anthony spoke, quivering,  _ How strong  _ are  _ you? _

Lance shrugged, practically preening,  _ “Strong enough. Now, you and I have some unfinished business, Tony.” _

Anthony looks fearful for a second before Lance laughs loudly,  _ “Relaaax, dude, I’m just playing. Let’s get you out of here, yeah? I bet River will be waiting for you.” _

The old club owner smiles and nods, walking towards Lance and taking his hands like River did before him.

And the chanting begins again.

_ “As virtuous men pass mildly away, _

_ And whisper to their souls to go, _

_ Whilst some of their sad friends do say _

_ The breath goes now, and some say, No: _

_ So let us melt, and make no noise, _

_ No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; _

_ ‘Twere profanation of our joys _

_ To tell the laity our love. _

_ Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears, _

_ Men reckon what it did, and meant; _

_ But trepidation of the spheres, _

_ Though greater far, is innocent. _

_ Dull sublunary lovers’ love _

_ (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit _

_ Absence, because it doth remove _

_ Those things which elemented it. _

_ But we by a love so much refined, _

_ That our selves know not what it is, _

_ Inter-assured of the mind, _

_ Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. _

  
  


_ Our two souls therefore, which are one, _

_ Though I must go, endure not yet _

_ A breach, but an expansion, _

_ Like gold to airy thinness beat. _

_ If they be two, they are two so _

_ As stiff twin compasses are two; _

_ Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show _

_ To move, but doth, if the other do. _

_ And though it in the center sit, _

_ Yet when the other far doth roam, _

_ It leans and hearkens after it, _

_ And grows erect, as that comes home. _

_ Such wilt thou be to me, who must, _

_ Like th’ other foot, obliquely run; _

_ Thy firmness makes my circle just, _

_ And makes me end where I begun.” _

.+⛧+.

Keith doesn’t speak until Lance shuts the car door.

“You took a while in there, everything okay?”

Lance swallowed and nodded, “Yup, just had diarrhea.”

The other boy's nose scrunched up, “And the screaming?”

_ Shit.  _ “It was explosive.”

“Oh my god, Lance.”

Lance smirked and wiggled his eyebrows, causing Keith to gag. He twisted the keys in the ignition and pulled out of the lot. 

An hour later into their drive and Keith was blinking sleepily, kitten-like yawning escaping his mouth every so often.

“You know,” Keith mumbled, pausing to yawn again, “I don’t think that was diarrhea.”

The car was silent before Lance turned to Keith, his eyes glowing blue.

_ “Sweet dreams, Keith.” _

.+⛧+.

Keith woke up a few hours later with a crick in his neck and more evidence to add to his file.

**Author's Note:**

> The chanting Lance was doing is actually a poem by John Donne called A Valedictorian : Forbidding Mourning
> 
> I have some more ideas for this au, but tell me your favourite Buzzfeed Unsolved (Supernatural or True Crime) Episode and mayhaps I will do a fic on it ;))
> 
> Anyway, y’all are valid have a day.


End file.
